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What is a home equity line of credit? If you’ve been looking for a way to get a little money out of your home without actually selling it, you’ve probably come across this option, known as a HELOC for short (pronounced “heelock”). Clear as mud, right? Now that you’re no doubt wondering what is a home equity line of credit going to do for me, let us clarify.

What is a home equity line of credit?

Like a Home Equity Loan (also known as a “second mortgage”), a HELOC allows you to borrow money using the equity in your home as collateral. But the thing that differentiates a HELOC is that it’s like a credit card: You can borrow on an as-needed basis, up to the loan’s limit, over the term of the loan (usually 5 to 20 years). In fact, your lender will actually issue you a small plastic card that looks just like a credit card, to allow you to access your money easily.

This works well for those who want to borrow money but don’t know exactly how much they’ll need, or for people who don’t need to borrow a lump sum all at once and will be paying for something over time —i.e. medical bills, college tuition, or major additions to their home.

For example, let’s say you want to add an extra bedroom and bathroom onto your house, and a contractor has given you an estimate that the project would cost $50,000 total. You could set up a Home Equity Line of Credit for $50,000, and pay for the materials, services, and labor over time, as the bills come due.

HGTV

On “Help! I Wrecked My House,” host Jasmine Roth knows that it’s all too easy for homeowners to start a home renovation project—but then never quite finish.

That’s what’s happened in the latest episode, “You Don’t Complete Me,” where homeowners Audrey and Darin attempted some DIY upgrades around their house in La Palma, CA, got stuck halfway through, then gave up.

Throughout their house, Roth finds holes in walls, tiles pried off countertops, and exposed wires in the ceiling. Darin is a union pipe fitter trying to become a full-time longshoreman, and Audrey is a communications coordinator. They also have two young children. With so much going on, it’s no wonder their home projects stalled.

“They do not have any extra time to work on their house. Yet, for some reason, they keep taking on projects that are above their skill set and are way too ambitious,” says Roth.

Lumber futures were trading at $454 per thousand board feet Monday after ascending to $539 per thousand board feet the week earlier, according to numbers tracked at Nasdaq.com.

Story, a property management platform aimed at helping landlords, managers and tenants, is the banking giant's attempt to put JPMorgan at the center of a $500 billion rental housing industry.

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It makes sense that mortgage rates are up. But by this much? That requires some explanation.

Freddie Mac’s weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has cracked 7% for the first time in two decades, a rise just shy of 4 percentage points from the end of last year. By contrast, benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields are up around 2.5 points. What this means is that the gap—or spread, in financial lingo—between mortgage rates and Treasury yields has ballooned.

For the past decade, the spread between a measure of average national mortgage rates and 10-year Treasury yields has averaged 1.8 points, according to figures tracked by Autonomous Research. This year began right around that level. But with Treasurys yielding over 4%, the spread now at roughly 3 points is about as high as it has been this century.

Other times that the spread has seen comparable widening were in late 2008 and March 2020, when the financial crisis and pandemic, respectively, were driving investors to the haven of Treasurys. In both cases, the Federal Reserve stepped up to buy more mortgage bonds, bringing spreads and mortgage rates down, as spreads on mortgage bonds are a key component in the mortgage rates ultimately charged to borrowers.

Investors, including iBuyers, that entered the housing market in 2020 and 2021 are at least partly to blame for the dramatic price correction playing out in 2022, Kelman said in a new interview.

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At the end of a long day of packing your possessions, labeling boxes, and fretting about moving everything from Point A to Point B, you might suddenly realize you have no idea how much to tip—you know, those guys who hauled your couch up three flights of stairs, along with all the other stuff you’ve accumulated in your lifetime. How much gratuity is customary for such service?

Generally, 15% to 20% is a customary tip in metropolitan areas, and 10% is on par for smaller areas, according to T.J. Peterson, digital marketing manager of Oz Moving & Storage, based in New York City.

Do you have to tip movers?

Yet tipping movers, like tipping any service worker, is a matter of discretion. In other words, if your movers took extra care when lifting boxes onto the truck or carefully wrapping your grandmother’s mantel clock, then show your appreciation with a nice gratuity. If the movers treated your possessions like junk, there’s no obligation to tip them at all.

“If you’re unhappy with your experience, you’re not obligated to tip,” says Peterson.

Running your own business comes with a slew of rules, regulations and obligations. As a new agent, it's critical to keep your finances in check and prepare for taxes from the get-go. We've rounded up our top resources to help you get ahead of what's coming April 15.

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Want to live like a sports star? The spectacular 9,395-square-foot megamansion in Paradise Valley, AZ, built for Major League Baseball legend Charles “Chili” Davis is now being offered for $8.5 million.

The home was originally listed in July for $9.5 million, so the current price represents a $1 million reduction.

The five-bedroom, six-bathroom house was custom-built in 2000 for the three-time All-Star. It has since changed hands a couple of times. The current owner picked it up in 2013 for $4,950,000.

‘Masterpiece property’

Sitting on 3 private acres on a hilltop, the elegant home in the Montana De Bonitas Casas neighborhood offers awe-inspiring views of Mummy Mountain.

Among other offerings, Stake1 is designed to track a tenant's financial activity with the intent of using on-time payments as a mechanism to improve credit rating,

The new office builds upon the brokerage's existing presence in Long Island, where it launched a franchise on the north shore in 2021, and marks the brokerage's 65th office overall.

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Maybe you’ve found a property that will be a killer investment at a bargain price. Or perhaps the beach cottage you’ve had your eye on for years just came on the market. Whatever the reason, if you’re considering applying for another mortgage while refinancing your current home, the process can be a bit complicated. To give you the full picture, we consulted mortgage experts and broke down the rules.

What to know about refinancing while buying a second home

There’s nothing wrong with refinancing one mortgage at the same time that you are buying an investment property or second home with a mortgage, according to Andrew Weinberg, principal and licensed mortgage broker at Silver Fin Capital Group, in Great Neck, NY.

The key factor to making both the refinance and new purchase work is to ensure you will qualify for the new home loan.

“This means taking into account your current home payment,” says Ralph DiBugnara, president of New York’s Home Qualified and vice president at Cardinal Financial. A mortgage bank can very easily tell you the total payments and loan amounts you’ll be able to carry based on your current income.

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Homeowners across the country are sitting on a record amount of home equity.

Home equity refers to the difference between the current value of a home and how much is still owed on the mortgage. Therefore, if you have a house worth $400,000 and you’ve paid $100,000 toward your mortgage, your equity is equal to 25%.

As a share of total real estate value in the country, home equity has risen along with home prices to currently hover at 70.5%—its highest level since 1984. To put that number in perspective, 10 years ago, in 2012, home equity hovered at just 46%.

“For over a decade, home prices have climbed consistently, with an acceleration to a double-digit pace over the most recent two years,” notes Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale. This, in turn, has helped push the total value of owner-occupied real estate in the United States to a new high of $41.2 trillion.

An interior designer wanted to create a home where “everything gets put away at night” — and she succeeded. Sort of.

A Southern California designer wanted to create a home where “everything gets put away at night” — and she succeeded. Sort of.

Elon Musk is already shaking things up just days after buying Twitter. That could have big implications for some of real estate's most pressing debates.

Now is the perfect time to plan an event to thank your clients, showcase your business and attract potential buyers. With a little creativity and planning, you can throw an event that’ll rival your competitors without breaking the bank, author and coach Darryl Davis writes.   

As we enter the fourth quarter, now's the time to get your finances in order for Tax Day. Here's a quick look at what is and isn't deductible as you prepare for tax season in real estate.

Real estate investing puts your money to work in the form of an income-producing property that can then be used to help finance your next property. The biggest barrier is also the simplest one: money

In times of turbulence, the best leaders make tough decisions and course corrections, according to agent Shelley Zavitz. Here are financial lessons from real estate agents who made it through the 2008 market crash to help guide you.